When The Sun Goes Down
by E.M. Nevermore
Summary: After a bizarre car accident involving a white German Shepherd, Audrey discovers a mysterious cave and unintentionally sets into motion a chain of events that will have frightening and unpredictable consequences. Set one year after the movie. Read and review!


Author's Note: Hi everyone! Thanks for clicking on my story! It's going to be a wild ride...

But, a few notes before we begin:

_When The Sun Goes Down_ is written as a sequel to the first _Lost Boys_ movie. I'm totally ignoring the 2nd and 3rd _Lost Boys_ films, so this story will not be consistent with either of those sequels. The story begins about a year after the events of the first movie.

_When The Sun Goes Down_ is rated M, though that's probably just me being overly cautious. However, these first few chapters are a little intense (by my standards, anyway), so if you think you might be upset by vivid descriptions of blood loss/shock/the aftermath of a bad but nonfatal car accident... skip the first two chapters and feel free to PM me for a G-rated summary of these early scenes so that you can enjoy the rest of the story.

Anyway, I really adore this fic, and I hope that you like it too.

Without further ado...

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**Chapter One**

_June 16, 1988_

It was a big white dog, and it came out of nowhere.

In the minutes after the crash, as warm blood trickled down the side of Audrey's face and she struggled unsuccessfully with her seatbelt, she couldn't remember exactly what had happened, except that she had swerved to avoid a white dog. Her head was wracked with sharp pains, sending darts of agony down her neck to her shoulders, and she could feel more blood soaking through her jeans where her right knee throbbed. She couldn't see much because the airbag was huge and had deployed right in her face, but she could feel shards of glass biting into her fingers as she tried to get her seatbelt to release. One of the windows must have shattered.

Finally, her thumb found the release button, and she cried out softly as she pressed down on it, feeling a piece of glass digging into the pad of her finger. The pressure on her chest eased as the seatbelt released, and she shifted, trying to get clear of the airbag. Her leg protested the movement, but she didn't care. Her only goal was to get away from the car. Flashes of the accident itself were beginning to return to her. She remembered a tree and slamming on the breaks, and the sickening feeling of an impact. Her hands were shaking as she reached for the door handle, pushing at the door with all of her might. It refused to open, and when she leaned to one side she could see why. She had hit one tree head on, and there was a second tree on her left side that was keeping her car door pinned shut. There was no way to get out on the driver's side.

Warm liquid trickled into her eyes, and she blinked the blood away, struggling to stay calm. She felt ready to vomit, and her knee burned like it was on fire as she tried to pull her legs up on the seat, in order to slip over to the passenger's side and get out that way. She finally had to grip her injured leg just above the knee with both hands, and tug it free of the crushed dashboard. The pain nearly made her scream, but it was even worse to see the bloody mess that her knee had become in just a few short seconds.

She eased across the seat, trembling as she pressed against the passenger door and fumbled with the handle. She was leaning against the door so heavily that she nearly fell out when the door popped open. She caught herself on the window, and then gasped when jagged glass pinched into the skin of her forearm and sliced through her flesh.

"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God." The wound was on her wrist, and the glass had cut deep and wide. Audrey jerked her hand away from the broken window and crawled out of the car, already feeling a rush of warm blood sliding down her arm. She wrapped her other hand around her wrist and gripped it tightly, hoping to prevent any more blood from escaping. She got to her feet slowly, and her right leg, the wounded one, nearly gave out on her. She turned and faced her mother's station wagon, already knowing that it had to be totaled.

The impact of slamming into the tree head on had all but crushed the entire front of her car. There was no way that anyone would be driving the station wagon again. Breathing heavily, Audrey turned, one hand still wrapped around her bleeding wrist, hoping to see some sign of people nearby.

There was no one. It was midafternoon, and she was on a lonely beach road that cut through the cliffs above the ocean. It could easily be more than thirty minutes before another car passed this way, and it wasn't a good area for swimming, either, so she probably wouldn't encounter anyone on the beach.

"Damn it." Audrey cursed breathlessly. If only she hadn't been in such a hurry to get out of the car, she wouldn't have cut her wrist open. Her head and leg were both very painful, but she could have borne the pain for forty minute or so while she waited for help. Now she could be in danger of bleeding out long before anyone found her.

Hoping that maybe someone was in hearing distance, she tilted her head back and screamed. "Help! Help! HELP ME!" More blood dripped into her eyes, and she couldn't rub it away since she had to keep hold of her wrist. The glare of the sun was nearly blinding, and she could hear the tide echoing in the background, a soothing soundtrack to her little catastrophe.

She was still shaking, and everything was disorienting, from the sun to the wind to the cries of the gulls. She tried to remember exactly where she was in relation to civilization, but everything felt a little hazy.

Shock or blood loss?

Holding her wrist wasn't helping stem the tide. Blood the color of black cherries slithered down her arm and coated the white blouse that she wore tucked into her similarly bloodstained jeans. "Oh, Jesus."

A low whine caught her attention, and Audrey turned, squinting. It was the dog. The big white dog that had caused the mess in the first place, by throwing himself in front of her tires as if he _wanted_ her to get in an accident. "Hey boy," Audrey said, and her voice was raspy. "Is your owner around here?" He was a handsome white German Shepherd, and seemed to be well taken care of. If she was lucky, his owner was nearby.

A breeze ruffled her hair, which was sticky with yet more blood, as the dog whined once more. He met her gaze and then turned purposefully, trotting towards a set of wooden steps that lead down the cliffs.

Audrey watched him go, her eyelids fluttering. She still felt sick, but now she also felt tired. She followed the dog as if she were in a dream. She took every step slowly, and yet somehow it seemed that just a few seconds had passed when she found herself at the bottom of the stairs, facing the mouth of an enormous cave. Audrey took a deep breath, her head still pounding, and she could taste her own blood on the air. A low moan tore from her lips, and suddenly the dog was beside her, sniffing her and nudging her with his nose.

"What?" Audrey whispered. "What is it?" She had to squint to read the signs in front of the cave. They all warned people away, claiming that the cave was dangerous and off-limits. Yet the dog was urging her that way. Perhaps his owner was in there? Audrey swayed on her feet as she tried to make up her mind what to do. She didn't want to wander any further from the road, but there was something about the dog that was almost… human, as he tried to steer her into the cave, even going as far as to catch a corner of her blouse in his mouth and pull her along. She had a cousin who was diabetic, and his dog always knew when his blood sugar got too high. Perhaps this dog also knew something that she didn't. "Is someone in there?" She asked the dog, but he just kept pushing her with his cold, wet nose.

"Okay," Audrey said finally, taking a shaky breath and stumbling toward the cave entrance.

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Thanks for reading! If you have a minute, review and let me know what you think!


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